Phil Lions

I just finished reading Jean Corne’s “La vérité sur le catch” (The truth about catch) book from 1974 and I have to say I enjoyed it a lot. The book doesn't break kayfabe and its goal is to pretty much explain pro wrestling to the reader and make the reader respect it. It is written in such a way where it touches on most aspects of the pro wrestling business so you get these little useful nuggets of information here and there, and there are also lots of different stories about various wrestling personalities. I don’t know that I believe everything Corne wrote, but I very much enjoyed what he wrote. Below I will post some stuff from the book as written by Corne - some I will quote directly while others I’ll summarize. The weight classes for pro wrestling in France: - Lightweights (poids légers): below 65 kg - Welterweights (poids mi-moyens): 65 to 72 kg - Middleweights (poids moyens): 72 to 79 kg - Light heavyweights (poids mi-lourds): 79 to 87,5 kg - Cruiserweights (poids lourds-légers): 87,5 to 100 kg - Heavyweights (poids lourds): above 100 kg These were originally established in the 1930s and back then there was no cruiserweight class. In the 1930s everyone above 87,5 kg was considered a heavyweight and then after WWII the cruiserweight class was introduced. The main matchmakers (bookers/booking agents): The matchmakers, as Corne called them, were the ones running things behind the scenes and putting the cards together. Each matchmaker had a stable of wrestlers. The matchmakers would contact local organizers [promoters] and sell them wrestling events. The local promoters would pay a fixed rate for the card to the matchmakers, and the rate would depend on how many wrestlers were on the card and the caliber of the wrestlers on the card. The main matchmakers in France “currently” were Maurice Durand, Etienne Siry, Alex Goldstein, Robert Lageat, Roger Delaporte, etc. Sometimes the matchmakers would enlist certain wrestlers from their stable to help them run things and deal with the local promoters. When there were important matches, at bigger venues, the wrestlers could sometimes get a piece of the profits, but often negotiating with the local promoters was tough because they naturally wanted to pay as little as possible but get the best talent possible. Corne joked that often negotiations happened while drinking so if one wanted to be good at negotiating with local promoters one needed to have a strong liver and heart. Corne described the wrestler/matchmaker relationship as follows: “The wrestler rents his services to the matchmaker of his choice. In the contract that binds them, the matchmaker generally provides a fixed guarantee to the wrestler which is insurance against the hazards of a bad season. This is how I proceed with my own matchmaker, and as far as I know, the same goes for the others.” “Currently, the matchmakers are independent of each other and there is no overall organization bringing together all the wrestlers, but it was not always this way. About ten years ago, there were four wrestling federations in France and their rivalry gave rise to heroic-comic incidents that we jokingly call ‘the wrestling war!’ between the leaders of these associations and for which the wrestlers most often paid the price.” Corne then went on to list these four federations: - Fédération Française de Lutte Professionnelle (FFLP), run by Maurice Durand - Fédération Internationale de Lutte et de Combat (FILC), run by Alex Goldstein, Albert Ben Chemoul and Rene Ben Chemoul - Fédération Française de Catch Professionnel (FFCP), run by Robert Lageat and Etienne Siry - Fédération Française des Lutteurs Indépendants (FFLI), run by Roger Delaporte Corne noted that “today” whenever a show was announced as a TV broadcast this would almost always be a great draw, but that wasn’t always the case. He told a story, told to him by Maurice Durand, how one time back in the 1950s Durand realized that the building for one of his TV shows at Salle Wagram was more than half empty so he pulled a trick. “One side of the arena was made very uncomfortable by flowing water, the spectators therefore crowded together under cover and all that remained was for the cameras to film that part of the arena to demonstrate ‘the enormous success’ of the show!” The European Alliance, them going after Maurice Durand and the debut of Bourreau de Bethune: Back in February 1959, when Corne first joined Maurice Durand’s stable, Alliance Européenne de Lutte et de Combat was created. It was an attempt at bringing together matchmakers, managers and promoters from France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, and Belgium. “Following commercial concerns, this organization decided to boycott Durand and wipe him off the wrestling map. I was, for my part, quite worried. Attracted by my boss's dynamism, I trusted him, but I did not underestimate the danger. Indeed, the European Alliance had gone so far as to send promoters threatening letters ordering them to reject all the planned contracts with Durand, of whom it was gently said that he was to ‘die’ within three weeks. On the other hand, Maurice Durand had with him five wrestlers and three referees. However, to have a wrestling show, you need ten wrestlers. Theoretically, the affair was off to a bad start. To add insult to injury, Robert Gastel, who was supposed to wrestle a match, broke his shoulder during the filming of a Jean Richard film. Durand then decided to call on Jacques Ducrez, a former French weightlifting champion. At that time Ducrez was already over forty years old.” Corne then went on to say how Ducrez, who supposedly had high fever and tonsillitis that day, had a very bad performance and the crowd was booing him and calling him all sorts of names. “Three weeks later, the same audience applauded him wildly under the mask of Bourreau de Bethune”. Apparently, it was at this show [February 5, 1959] where Durand used the “water trick” described above to make it seem like he had a packed house when it was far from that. “With the cameras well directed, Leon Zitrone, the television commentator was able to assert, without lying too much, and with visual evidence to support it, that the ‘room was stuffed like an egg’. It is true that the match was extraordinary. Bourreau put Leduc ‘in flight’. A rumor spread that Leduc had suffered a bursting of the liver. More than two hundred phone calls were made to the network and just as many to Salle Wagram, coming from indignant spectators who shouted: ‘Stop this assassin! Death to the butcher!’ Le Bourreau de Bethune was born”. Overall Corne gave a lot of credit to Ducrez/Bourreau de Bethune for helping save Durand’s promotion during a difficult time for Durand. Is wrestling a sport or a spectacle? Corne quoted Maurice Durand's son on this question as he felt this was the best response: “Wrestling is a sport for the wrestlers, and a spectacle for the spectators!” Corne then flat out denied that wrestling was predetermined and talked about how there had been newspaper articles and spectators who had claimed that wrestling was predetermined, but it was not. The big rumor in France since the 1930s had been that the Paris match results would get reported to the police in advance of the matches taking place. People would always bring up this rumor when talking about how wrestling was fake. Corne told a fun little story of how when Gilbert Leduc used to manage a bar restaurant, where he had put photos of wrestlers on the walls, there was a customer who was being loud, calling wrestling fake and was swearing by the aforementioned rumor. Leduc approached the customer and offered a bet: 200 French francs and a meal on the house if the guy could bring proof that the police knew the match results in advance. The guy wandered the police corridors all afternoon, but couldn’t get any proof so he returned to Leduc embarrassed, exhausted and hungry. According to Corne, back in 1960 Robert Lageat had publicly offered a million francs to whoever could prove that same rumor, but no one could. Maurice Durand vs. writer Jean Bruce: At one point there was a wrestler in the Durand troupe who went by the name OSS 117. Durand took the name from writer Jean Bruce’s famous novels about the secret agent Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath (codename OSS 117). Bruce was not happy about it so he filed a complaint and did a magazine interview blasting Durand for using the name without his permission. Corne had this amusing quote from a Durand interview where Durand sarcastically explained why he was using the name: “I thought that the author was a contemporary of Conan Doyle or at least an old man with a beard, a sort of fossil. And I thought the names Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath and OSS 117 had fallen into the public domain!” Corne on Albert Ben Chemoul: “One of the best trainers there has been in France, Albert Ben Chemoul, apparently estimates that there are around fifteen hundred different holds.” Corne on the very first thing a pro wrestler should learn: “The ABCs of wrestling consist first of all in the practice of falling well. If you fall on your back, your shoulders should hit the ground first. Never the feet, otherwise beware of broken ankles or hurt heels. If the fall occurs from the front or side, you must maintain perfect alignment so that the entire body touches the ring mat at the same time. The higher you fall, the more likely you are not to hurt yourself, because you have time to correct your position to land correctly. This is why, when a wrestler is lifted from the ground, for a throw, by his opponent, he helps him to propel himself as high as possible. Anyone who does not force themselves to perform these apparently unspectacular exercises will not survive long. Tedious and exhausting, these falls must nevertheless be repeated at length during training.” Corne on Vassilios Montopoulos: “The great specialist in the ‘scissors on the fly’ was Jetti Coster. But, the one who did the most damage with this hold is undoubtedly Vassilios Montopoulos, who executes it by blocking his opponent's neck between his ankles. All those who suffered it came out with their ears damaged by the laces of Montopoulos' shoes.” Corne on Rene Ben Chemoul’s injuries: “Rene Ben Chemoul, for example, who has been practicing this profession for around twenty years, has had thirteen serious fractures and more than four hundred sprains, strains and torn ligaments, not counting the broken nose three times, broken teeth and injuries to the chin or eyebrows. In what sport can one display such a track record of risks?” Corne’s most serious injury: It happened in a match with Antonio Morlans in August 1968. Morlans backdropped him from the ring to the floor, but Corne failed to grab the rope and fell directly on his buttocks. He then couldn’t get up and couldn’t feel his limbs. The match was stopped and he was taken to the local hospital, where he was diagnosed with a cracked coccyx and displacement of the lumbar vertebrae. He was able to regain the use of his limbs but he had to walk with canes for three months before he was able to resume training. Corne on Gilbert Leduc: “It is difficult to rank and distribute places. However, I think we can all agree that Gilbert Leduc was the best pro wrestler France has ever known. He became a professional at the age of eighteen, around 1945, after having a dazzling career as an amateur. He was an athlete of rare tenacity. As many others, he started with freestyle wrestling and was champion of Paris. He remained famous among wrestlers for having been the only one to practice the ‘spinning top’, an exercise that requires enormous willpower supported by an unusual constitution of the neck muscles. His successes were innumerable both for the quality of his style and for the sympathy he could draw from the spectators. Many people tend to see us as big brutes who are just good at dishing out and receiving blows. Gilbert Leduc rightly earned the nickname ‘gentleman of the ring’. He is a cultured man, interested in a thousand things outside of wrestling, a remarkable polyglot and a formidable bridge champion. He also found the time to learn to fly planes and put all the effort he could into it.” Corne on Rene Ben Chemoul: “How can we talk about wrestling, without mentioning Rene Ben Chemoul? At the beginning, however, there was nothing to suggest that he could have been so successful. As an amateur, he wrestled honestly, but without brilliance and had average results. However, after becoming a professional, he was, from 1967, the most popular wrestler in France. He was the World Welterweight champion for a long time and really deserved his title. The reason for his popular success is perhaps to be found in his very particular style, made of pirouettes, genuflections, and unbridled movements. It offered the public a whole range of spectacular emotions. He has had many imitators, but they all collapsed because the ‘Ben Chemoulien’ style resulting from the conjunction of certain qualities which are cunning, combat intelligence and a keen sense of the public, were rarely found pushed to such a degree. With the dynamic Walter Bordes, a young and excellent stylist with an advantageous physique, Rene Ben Chemoul formed a formidable and spectacular team for four-man wrestling. And, thanks to television, all of France now knows their song ‘Mamadou Mémé’ accompanied by the traditional little dance step that they perform at the beginning and end of each match.” Corne on Le Petit Prince: “Rene Ben Chemoul is far from being an isolated case. I think of another idol, Alberic d'Ericourt, well known under the name ‘Le Petit Prince’. We see him twirl with ease, and it is not for nothing that he has been nicknamed ‘the king of acrobats’. We can say that he was one of the discoveries of television since it was in 1966 that Roger Couderc, struck by his natural elegance, gave him the name that remains attached to him. But who, seeing him like this, would suspect that his jaw was completely fractured, his arms and legs broken multiple times, that finally, a bad blow broke his eye cage leaving him practically blind in his right eye? This is the price that had to be paid to the divinities of wrestling. He doesn't regret it though. From a very young age he had a taste for the ring given to him by a boxer uncle and began his training at fourteen. He reached the French gymnastics championship in the cadet category and continued to train intensively in amateur wrestling, until his military service which he completed in the air force without having been more favored than me for sport. Then, he made his first appearances in front of an audience, in Doubs, during a preliminary professional match for the regional title. He immediately learned a lesson from it. You are not professional without intensive training. You have to push it seriously and to the limit. 'Around the age of 14 or 15', he told me, 'my brother and I had real rag-tag fights, but if this practice does no harm, it leads to nothing when it is not accompanied by a rational and courageous training, because wrestling hurts and I had not been in the wrestling job for two months and I already had a cauliflower ear!' In any case, he was able to develop a very personal and also very spectacular technique. Thus, the classic defense to an arm reversal consists of doing a roll, but ‘Le Petit Prince’ likes to get away with a somersault. This high-class wrestler, however, is not very optimistic about the future of wrestling. He thinks, in particular, that there is a revival of systematic violence. The wrestlers voluntarily seek out at all costs, whatever the injury inflicted on the opponent, sometimes with illegal means. He is no less severe for those he calls Sunday wrestlers. He accuses them of corrupting wrestling: ‘These are wrestlers, often provincial, who do wrestling to be able to call themselves wrestlers and attract the attention of girls. The result is a drop in quality, so much so that we could happily count on the fingers of one hand the true professionals aged under thirty’.” Corne on Roger Delaporte: “Among the ‘bad guys’ of the ring, one of the most famous is, without a doubt, Roger Delaporte. For years, this Norman from Petit-Quevilly has drained all the hatred and all the nonsense behind him. An excellent technician, he had the art and the way of arousing the anger of the public. With his gaze shifting beneath a stubborn forehead, walking with small steps around his adversaries, muttering insults into his drooping mustache, Roger Delaporte skillfully represented the traitor straight out of a pantomime of Boulevard du Crime. It was necessary to see the way he kneeled as if to ask for forgiveness when, after having given an unfair blow, he suffered the just punishment of his victim. Despite this sometimes ridiculous image of his character, Roger Delaporte was one of the great wrestlers of our time. Four times Normandy champion in freestyle wrestling and Greco-Roman, the only time he competed for the national title in these two disciplines, he managed to place second. A strong athlete, he also practiced boxing and rugby. And, for four consecutive years, he was second row of the Rouen Rugby Club, then pillar of the Celtic reserve team. But, as he says with humor: I was still better at wrestling... and at fishing. This is true in both cases. Roger, a great fisherman before the Lord, is indeed a real terror for pike. Outside of the ring Delaporte has always been a loyal and honest being. And continues to be so since he crossed the barrier by taking charge of the management of the Elysee Montmartre hall and by organizing events in the provinces.” Corne on the end of Andre Bollet's career: “Sadly, I fear we will never see Andre Bollet in a ring again. Two years ago, as he was getting out of his car, he was hit by another vehicle and this accident would have been fatal for anyone other than him. Thanks to his intensive training, Andre Bollet limited the damage. With an admirable presence of mind and a lightning reflex, he managed to jump on the hood of the driver. However, he was very seriously injured in the leg and the after-effects of this accident are such that this magnificent wrestling beast is very handicapped today.” Corne on L’Ange Blanc: “A word, now, about a character who was, on a social level, a case in the annals of wrestling: Francisco Pino-Farina, "L’Ange Blanc". His appearance in the ring unleashed passions. Especially among female spectators. This gave rise to incredible scenes of collective hysteria. On several occasions, we even saw women kissing the ground as he passed. Thanks to him, the wrestlers' locker rooms were decorated with flowers like a star's dressing room on a premiere night. With very well-conducted advertising, the “L’Ange Blanc, purifier of the rings” campaign was especially fruitful for the promoters’ coffers. During his first match against L’Homme Masque, this American colossus who brought the use of the mask to our country, L’Ange Blanc broke all revenue records in the former Palais des Sports arena in Grenelle. It must be admitted that from a commercial perspective, the arrival of L’Ange Blanc gave a new boost to wrestling. But this golden vein has been overexploited. And like L’Ange Blanc did not have the gift of ubiquity to satisfy all requests, the miracle of satisfaction took place thanks to subterfuge: One..., then two..., then four and finally seven L’Ange Blancs appeared. Disgusted by such procedures, Francisco Pino-Farina then took off his white hood to honestly pursue this profession that he loves so much. And this gesture is not surprising when we know Francisco's uprightness and fair play.” Corne on wrestling vs. boxing: “Despite all the scandals revealed by the mainstream press, the wide distribution of certain films denouncing dishonest schemes and the influence of gangsters on pugilistic circles, professional boxing remains for some, a serious sport while wrestling would only be a sports parody. To enlighten those who still have this opinion, I would like to put together some figures. The ticket price to attend a wrestling card is a maximum of ten to fifteen francs. On some cards it could be even five francs. For the same places, boxing fans must pay one hundred francs. Not to mention the big matches where the ring seats fetch seven to eight hundred francs on the black market. The average purse of a top wrestler varies between two hundred and four hundred francs. While a boxing champion can require a real fortune to fight. A popular sport, wrestling has an audience of people of modest means: workers, peasants, small employees. While also attracting the popular, boxing attracts a large number of middle-class people and wealthy executives. Wrestling matches, even the most important ones, are organized throughout France and most take place in the provinces, while with rare exceptions the major boxing matches take place in the capital in order to see the snobs flock there. This social difference means that young people are currently not tempted by wrestling, in a hurry to immediately receive big purses. And, as moreover, to earn a living, active wrestlers are obliged to do a lot of matches, they do not have the time to spend hours giving lessons to apprentices. Like boxers, wrestlers mostly come from underprivileged backgrounds. For them, sport is a way to increase their standard of living. Many wrestlers have a second job in order to keep the pot boiling. There are barely any left in France, perhaps around twenty professionals in their own right... Incidentally, it wasn't long ago that my teammate Michel Falempin let go of his building painting brushes! However, to my knowledge, there are no former wrestlers who have become tramps. I don't want to name anyone, but few people had a miserable end. The reason is undoubtedly that having never received large purses, the wrestler is not intoxicated by money, and does not squander it considerably. And then, it must be said that the career of a wrestler is much longer than that of a boxer. In wrestling, a wrestler who knows how to stay in good physical condition can easily last for a good twenty years. Andre Drapp, our dean, who still wrestles remarkably, is fifty-two years old. A boxer therefore ‘wears out’ more quickly. And yet, for those who practice this sport, only the head is damaged by the blows whereas in wrestling it is the whole body (and particularly the kidneys) which is the victim of serious trauma.” Gastel shooting on Charron: Corne told a story about how Robert Charron, a popular pro boxer turned pro wrestler, was going around and calling wrestling bullshit so Robert Gastel shot on him during a match and broke his arm. When Charron healed up and resumed his wrestling career he wasn’t saying that anymore and easily lost a match to Ducrez. Corne on being "Brigitte Bardot’s bodyguard" and his UK tour: “During the summer season of 1959, I was on tour in the French Riviera. On the beach in Cannes, I met a young girl who was a dead ringer for Brigitte Bardot. As a joke, my fellow wrestlers called her Brigitte or B.B. However, in our group, there was an Englishman named Ken Joyce, who spoke our language very poorly. So he was convinced that he was in the presence of our great screen star. The following year, Ken Joyce, who had become a matchmaker in his country, asked me to come and do a series of matches for him. The contract was not extraordinary but I accepted straight away. At the time I was single and I really wanted to know the atmosphere of the halls across the Channel, where wrestling is king. To give you an idea of its popularity, know that in London for example, there is no less than one hall per neighborhood which presents two or three wrestling cards per week. My first match was to be at Dover. Much to my surprise when I disembarked from the ferry boat I saw a huge blue-white-red poster on which my name was written in bold capitals with the following words: ‘The Bardot! Former bodyguard of Brigitte’. My friend Ken Joyce, convinced that I had had an affair with B.B., had modestly given me the title of her former bodyguard. In the evening, the hall was packed, because all the residents of Dover wanted to see B.B.'s bodyguard! Throughout the tour (sixty matches) I experienced the same curiosity success, thereby saving my employers many pounds sterling. The final bouquet was given to me in London by Paul Lincoln, the promoter of the Metropolitan, who had it displayed throughout the capital: ‘Come and see Brigitte Bardot's bodyguard wrestle!’... but it took a good sight or glasses to read my name below! In conclusion, this involuntary deception did not enrich me because a contract is a contract, and despite the success of the operation I did not receive a ‘cent’ more. In fact, the only thing I gained from this tour was a great lesson in humility because, without the sponsorship of Brigitte Bardot, I would probably never would have had such success with the ladies! When I returned to France, my friend Isha Israel told me: ‘You should go see B.B. I'm sure your adventure will amuse her. It's even possible that she would enjoy playing along. It would be great publicity for you!’ Maybe he was right, but I never dared to ring Brigitte Bardot's doorbell.” Corne on Roger Courderc: “Technically, he knows nothing about wrestling. He makes us forget this deficiency with a very southern ease. His ‘thing’ is partiality. His ‘Allez France’ becomes ‘Allez le Petit Prince’. And when Couderc takes up the cause of the ‘good guys’ against the ‘bad guys’, we believe it. Corne on Claude Darget: “Despite his complete ignorance of our sport, he was, it is certain, favored by some of the viewers. But his acidic, not to say mean, jokes attracted the animosity of all the wrestlers. Darget is our pet peeve. One evening, Michel Falempin having heard one of his derogatory remarks, jumped from the ring and chased him into the locker room. Without the intervention of some of our colleagues, Claude Darget would have had a bad time!” And that’s where I’ll end it. There is plenty more to the book though including sections on referees, announcers, women’s wrestling, wrestling techniques, an interesting overview of the wrestling scenes in other countries around the world, stories about Corne's tag team with Falempin, stories about other wrestlers, a section on the bons/mechants dynamic, a section where he talks about the different types of fans, a section with “wrestling slang”, and more. He finishes the book by explaining the difficulties pro wrestling was facing at the time in France (aging wrestlers, no new blood coming in due to various reasons, lack of pro wrestling schools, loss of Paris venues, no tax breaks, reduced TV schedule with broadcasts late at night, very little media attention, etc.), and he doesn't sound very optimistic about its future.

Okay, so I searched around a bit last night and it looks like there may have been some additional ups and downs in the FFLP story that I need to research more. In searching for that, however, I found a few interesting tidbits that I thought I'd share here. An article from November 1949 referred to the Elysee Montmartre promotion (Henri Chausson's promotion) as "Fédération Sportive Française". The article also mentioned a "Fédération Nationale de Lutte Professionnelle" based out of Clisson Palace, and I've never heard about that one before. And there was also a mention of "Fédération Française de Lutte" being active in the provinces. In November 1950 Karel Istaz (the future Karl Gotch) and six other Belgian wrestlers were provisionally suspended by the Belgian Pro Wrestling Federation. And because the Belgian federation and FFLP had a working agreement, it was announced that these wrestlers could not wrestle in France either. A September 1952 article mentioned an interesting rule when it comes to title matches. Back in November 1946 the Ministry of Education had issued an order to authorize FFLP to sanction French, European and World Championship matches. Calling back to this old order, in September 1952 FFLP made a decision about the number of title matches that would be allowed. The article doesn't go into details so it's hard to say whether the original 1946 order had something in it about the number of matches or it was just a general ruling. Anyway, the point is that in September 1952 FFLP ruled that each French Championship could only be competed for four times per season, with European Championships it was three times per season and with the World Championships it was two times per season. It's not clear whether this meant in Paris only or France as a whole. The Paris season was typically from early fall through late spring or early summer. I also do have to mention that looking at my notes I see that earlier in the year in 1952 Frank Sexton defended his World Heavyweight Championship claim in Paris three times and now this makes me wonder whether the September 1952 decision was somehow related to that. I don't know. My best guess is that by the end of the 1960s most, if not all, of the old Paris promoters were out of the game. We know for a fact that Chausson was out, because Delaporte took over Elysee Montmarte at some point in the 1960s. Lack of foreign talent was definitely an issue. If you compare the 1970s cards with the 1950s and 1960s cards, it's obvious straight away how reduced the number of foreign wrestlers is compared to the previous two decades. And you no longer get big foreign names passing through France like some had done in the past. And it aired not only on delay, but on 12-day delay. Lack of TV exposure was certainly a factor. It's not impossible, but it's definitely much harder to make new stars when you're airing late on Saturday nights. More importantly though, the time slot tells me how far wrestling had fallen off in terms of priorities for the network. Also, one small clarification. L'Ange Blanc's debut match aired 10:05 on Friday. His actual TV debut was a prime time interview the day before, which according to the French press back then was watched by 4 million viewers (which was a lot for 1959 France).

On an unrelated note, I recently got my hands on some French books about catch: On the left we have "The Confessions of a Wrestler" from 1960. The author Gilles Calou had a very brief pro wrestling career. In wrestling he went by Strangler Jew and Masque d'Or (Golden Mask). Then he went ahead and wrote this book, right when L'Ange Blanc and company were super popular in France. The book got a good deal of publicity back then too as it promised to expose the inner workings of catch. I had known about this book for a few years now, but finally gave in and got it the other week. I haven't looked through it properly yet, but it seems to be more so about training and how the matches were worked than anything else. On the right we have a book by Frédéric Loyer from 2009. It examines the history of pro wrestling in France and how it connects with amateur wrestling. A friend of mine sent me a copy just the other day so I have yet to go through it in detail, but it looks like a well-researched book, although more on the sporting side of things than on the business side of wrestling. And finally, in the middle we have the one I'm most excited about. "The Truth About Wrestling" by Jean Corne. Written in 1974. I only learned about this one yesterday and it's on its way to me now. My point in all of this being, once I eventually go through these books if anything interesting pops up, I will let you guys know. And I also thought I'd mention them in case anyone else might be interested in them. While on the subject of French catch books, "The Golden Age" one from 2016 is a favorite of mine. Information-wise it's pretty weak, but in terms of photos this is one of the best pro wrestling books you will find. It's just a beautiful book and features a lot of high quality wrestler and poster photos. If you like wrestling coffee table books, this one is an easy recommendation (even if you don't know any French). And finally, I see that wrestler-turned-promoter Marc Mercier's upcoming book is scheduled to come out in October this year. Should be an interesting read that hopefully reveals some new details about French catch.

Earlier today there was a bit of discussion over on Twitter about the decline of catch in France and that reminded me of something, which I don't think I've mentioned here before. Earlier on in this topic I had talked about the formation of the FFLP. Later on I found out about its end, but I haven't shared this here so here it goes. I'll start from the beginning. FFLP (Fédération Française de Lutte Professionnelle) was formed way back in 1922. This wasn't a wrestling promotion (though ironically later on there was a promotion by that name). This FFLP was a country-wide governing body for pro wrestling in France. FFLP was to pro wrestling what the French (Amateur) Wrestling Federation was to amateur wrestling, and FFLP was kind of an offshoot of the amateur federation, in fact. All of the rules and regulations for pro wrestling in France came down from FFLP and more importantly in order for a wrestler to wrestle professionally in France the wrestler needed to get a licence through FFLP. At one point in later years for rookies this meant having to pass an exam to get your licence. And if you did something more radical during a match that FFLP didn't approve of, they could take your licence too, which effectively banned you from wrestling in France. I'm not sure if this was the case earlier on too, but I know in the late 1930s wrestlers who wanted to teach catch (pro style) had to get a teacher's diploma through FFLP. FFLP also had a wrestler relief fund, where money would accumulate and go toward helping injured wrestlers. All the championship belts in France? Sanctioned by FFLP, which explains why in France there weren't multiple title claimants of the same title at the same time like there were in other countries. In short, FFLP was as legit a governing body as you could get in pro wrestling. And on top of that, like I've mentioned in the past, in 1928 a French pro wrestlers union was also formed to watch out for the rights and interests of the French pro wrestlers. FFLP was very much in control of things from the 1920s through the 1940s. They still were in the 1950s, but it seems things were beginning to loosen a bit and then in the early 1960s the French amateur federation decided to close down FFLP as a governing body and pro wrestling in France was left to its own devices, without any direct oversight like it had had for close to 40 years by that point. According to Bob Plantin, the FFLP closure happened in 1960, but I haven't been able to confirm that. Bob points to this as one of the major reasons for the eventual decline of catch. I'm paraphrasing here, but in his words now that wrestling was no longer as regulated as it had been in the past and wrestlers didn't require a FFLP licence anymore, any schmuck could become a pro wrestler and more incompetent promoters entered the business, which eventually led to a decline in both the quality of the workers and of the shows overall. And then as television evolved and other sports became easier to televise, those sports became more of a priority so catch lost its prominence on TV too. Obviously, this is just one veteran wrestler's opinion and there may be some "back in my day" bias too, but it all sounds very plausible to me and so I think we can add the closure of FFLP to the list of reasons for the eventual decline of catch. You take away the regulation from a business that's used to being regulated and chaos is bound to happen with all sorts of people, both old and new, trying to grab a piece of the pie. The loss of FFLP probably didn't help the TV situation either.

I believe the TV footage is from 1998-2000, to be more precise. About ten or so years ago the Bolivian giant Walter "Tataque" Quisbert randomly peaked my interest and I wanted to find out more about his pro wrestling career so I ended up looking into the Bolivian scene a bit. There wasn't detailed info available on the older stuff, but there was a blog that had a lot of photos and info on the current day scene. The scene at that point, however, seemed very cartoonish in terms of presentation and characters, i.e. so nothing like the video above. This is the blog in question: https://luchalibrebol.blogspot.com. It's no longer active, but the archives are still there. And then there was another blog, in English, which provided some info on the history of lucha libre in Bolivia: http://www.nellhaynes.com/fieldnotes/la-historia-el-mito-de-origenes + http://www.nellhaynes.com/fieldnotes/la-historia-la-epoca-dorada + http://www.nellhaynes.com/fieldnotes/a-brief-history-of-bolivian-lucha-libre. By the way, here's Tataque on the right. Next to him is Sombra Vangadora who was one of the top Bolivian stars back in the 1980s (not to be confused with the Mexican Sombra Vengadora - different guy). Two of the guys featured in the video that Jetlag shared, Sombra Vengadora Jr. and Vampiro Uno, are Sombra Senior's sons. LFX (Lucha Fuerta Xtrema), one of the YouTube channels in the original post, was their company. The other channel, Jaidercito, is mostly about Jaider Lee. In addition to being second-generation wrestlers (their father was Napoleon Simonini, better known as Medico Loco, another one of the top Bolivian stars from back in the day), Lee and his brother Kid Simonini used to run a company called LIDER. I'm not sure who's running it today, but the company is still around. And a quick glance at their Facebook page tells me that they're doing weekly shows and they've got a couple of third-generation Simoninis wrestling there.

With WWE's upcoming PLE in France POST Wrestling just published an article on the history of wrestling and WWE in France that I thought was pretty good. I thought I would share it here: https://www.postwrestling.com/2024/05/01/nearly-twenty-years-of-french-wrestling-history-surrounds-backlash-france/

He was indeed. However, he didn't get the Quasimodo gimmick in Spain. The Quasimodo gimmick was first introduced in France and then he took it around the world.

https://twitter.com/Phil_Lions/status/1742250666071072951 https://twitter.com/Phil_Lions/status/1742250670210638299 https://twitter.com/Phil_Lions/status/1742250673910218840 https://twitter.com/Phil_Lions/status/1742250677579989414 https://twitter.com/Phil_Lions/status/1742250681006981613

I don't think they're new and I don't think INA have added any new stuff since 2018-19 (which is when I last searched through the archive thoroughly). I just think we hadn't paid attention to the Kidd footage before. I know I hadn't as I was primarily focused on other wrestlers back then. I don't want to speak for them, but I also think the Segunda Caida crew only paid attention to the full matches and skipped over the highlight stuff, and there is a lot of footage in the archive that is just highlights of matches as opposed to full matches. Hence why the Kidd footage has only popped up now. Anyway, I just looked through the archive again to see if there's anything additional of Kidd's that I might have missed and it doesn't seem like there is. Just those three matches. I shared a few clips over on Twitter in case anyone wants to take a look:

Rene Ben Chemoul, Guy Laroche and someone listed as Dauveau. I don't think I've heard the name Dauveau before. At first I thought it might be Andre Chauveau misspelled, but the guy in the footage seems like a different guy.

At that same time Aledo was the World Lightweight and European Lightweight champion in Spain too. He continued to hold those claims there. I hadn't specifically searched for this before, but now that you've mentioned it I just did and it turns out INA does have highlights of three Kidd matches from 1952-53. About 8 minutes of footage altogether. EDIT - Actually, more like nine and half minutes in total.

Just a random poster I came across. Modesto Aledo (c) vs. George Kidd (billed as the European champion) for the World Lightweight Championship. Talk about a match that sounds great on paper.

"The Japanese Suicide Wrestler" Kamikaze gimmick was first used in France in 1961. It was around as early as March 1961. It was brought over to Spain in the summer of 1963. It made its first appearance in England that summer too. This is the original French Kamikaze from 1961. Not sure who was under the hood then.

Actually, I might as well share these too since I have them in my files. February 18-22, 1998 Beirut, Lebanon Promoters: the Saade brothers The covers of Lebanese wrestling magazines from 1986-1988:

To be more precise: September 26-October 3, 1974 Beirut, Lebanon City Sports Hall I've previously come across a few newspaper photos of Danny Lynch, Prince Kumali and others in Lebanon around this time (could even be from the same tour): And speaking of Lebanon, the article is in Bulgarian but here you can check out some posters for wrestling shows in Lebanon and Syria in the 1930s and 1950s. This an article about a Bulgarian wrestler who wrestled there in those decades. Some of his personal belongings have been preserved at a museum in Bulgaria.

I think for me Cuba may be the most interesting of the bunch and the one I'd like to see the most, if it were possible. Local wrestling aired on Cuban TV on and off from 1951 through 1959 and there was quite a lot of it in the early to mid 1950s. Not at the same time, but wrestling aired on four different networks there - Channel 4 (Union Radio Television), Channel 6 (CMQ Television), Channel 2 and Channel 7 (CMBF Television). Looking at the cards that I have there are a bunch of interesting names on those cards and those names could have potentially been on the TV shows too. I say potentially, because while shows were generally broadcast live on TV more than likely not all of matches aired on TV. Big stars from the U.S. passed through for a visit (Frank Sexton, Gorgeous George, Buddy Rogers, Lou Thesz, Antonino Rocca), Mexican stars did as well (Medico Asesino, Dientes Hernandez, Fernando Oses, etc.), other well-established names from the U.S. worked on some cards (Tony Olivas, Wally Dusek, Danny Dusek, Kola Kwariani, Ray Stern, Billy Darnell, Nell Stewart, Cora Combs, etc.) and of course there were also all the stars of the local scene such as The Red Menace (Pedro Godoy), El Chiclayano, Ramon Rivera, King Badu and others. In terms of influence Cuba seems to have been influenced the most by the Tampa office, but there was definitely a Mexican influence too which makes me quite curious what the general in-ring style might have been given the mix of influences. As for Lebanon, wrestling used to air on TV there in the 1970s on Channel 7. The Saade brothers were probably the biggest stars, but there were also international stars like Danny Lynch, Prince Kumali and Tsuneharu Sugiyama to name a few, who worked in Lebanon during this time too. Although to be fair I don't know which ones of the international guys worked the TV. I know they worked the big shows, but I don't know about the TV. If Cortez had returned to Spain after his AWA run was over he was headed straight to prison for a period of six years. More about that here: http://wrestlingclassics.com/.ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=005490 Cortez was indeed quite popular in Spain and is probably the best remembered Spanish star today, but a lot of that was due to him having a segment on national TV in Spain in the mid 1960s where he would arm wrestle any and all comers, with the network offering to give 100,000 Spanish pesetas to whoever could beat him. And mind you this was at a time when, I believe, there was still only one television network in Spain. That television exposure gave Cortez a level of recognizability other Spanish stars simply couldn't obtain, because they weren't being featured on TV at all, let alone regularly. That said, while Cortez's star was rising the business in Spain in general was falling so ultimately even with Cortez in the mix I don't think demise of Spanish wrestling could have been slowed down much, if at all. And plus, in general information about attendance is limited so I don't know how well his TV fame translated to the box office during his prime in the mid to late 1960s. Definitely not the case. I'd have to check my Greek clippings to dig out the exact years, but I have seen several reports about Greek wrestlers working in Egypt in the 1940s. Maybe the 1950s too. And of course, speaking of the 1930s, it's worth mentioning Jim Londos worked a few matches in Egypt in 1937.

In terms of Continental Europe, I don't think there is one. I would love to see more Telecatch with Ted Boy Marino from 1960s Brazil, or a bunch of Cuban TV from the 1950s, or Lebanese TV with the Saade brothers and others from the 1970s. For me that would be some of the most interesting stuff, but sadly, I think the chances of any of those still existing are extremely slim.

No chance. Spanish wrestling wasn't televised. In terms of footage from the golden age of Spanish wrestling, the RTVE archive has only newsreel clips and that Cortez/Tarres one is actually the longest one. I shared them all a while back here: http://wrestlingclassics.com/.ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=005285 That said, I don't think much is available in their online archive at the moment, but RTVE may have "Los Héroes del Xóndo" tucked away somewhere. That was the Spanish attempt at a "Titanes en el Ring" type of show. The show aired in 1978-79 and it didn't last long. There's some footage from 16:25 onward here:

This was of course years after SMW had shut down, although I would imagine the channel bought the tapes earlier, but I used to watch SMW via German TV back in 2000. It was so random. I'd go from watching Lance Storm holding three belts in WCW to seeing him team up with Jericho in SMW. The channel was called Premiere Sport 1 and it used to show nine hours of wrestling every day (well, in reality it was three hours, but they were airing the same content three times a day). They had WCW (live PPVs, old PPVs, Nitro, Thunder, one of the recap shows, old Nitros), ECW Hardcore TV, AAA and SMW. It was quite the eclectic mix and I loved it. Sidenote: Around this same time there was another German channel where I vividly remember seeing Tim Flowers' ICW promotion out of Canada. How random is that!

That theory about the Exbrayat/Esbrayat name definitely makes sense. Also, thanks for that book link. Had a quick look and this I found interesting: "Dans l’imaginaire télévisuel, on les associe volontiers à des héros de séries ou de feuilletons que l’on peut retrouver régulièrement, le week-end sur le petit écran : l’Ange Blanc, l’Homme Masqué, le Bourreau de Béthune, Chéri-Bibi, René Ben Chemoul, André Bollet, Gilbert Leduc, Pancho Farina..." A lot of the same names that I mentioned. I also like how Blanc/Farina is mentioned twice. The villain L'Homme Masque is another one that slipped my mind. He was actually the first masked man attraction that Goldstein introduced and then L'Ange Blanc was introduced as the hero to battle him and other villains. Had L'Homme Masque been a flop, there likely wouldn't have been a L'Ange Blanc. And people sometimes confuse L'Homme Masque with Bourreau de Béthune. Masque was Blanc's big rival during Blanc's masked period. Bethune was working for the rival promotion at the time and was introduced as their own version of Masque, more or less. Bethune did work with Blanc later on, but Blanc had already unmasked by that point.

A few notes from me: "French TV likewise made household names of wrestling stars like L'Ange Blanc, the Bourreau de Bethune, Chéri Bibi, Robert Duranton, Le Petit Prince and Flesh Gordon" - that is an interesting selection of names. It's not who I would've went with though. Blanc, Bethune, Delaporte, Bollet, Duranton, Andre Drapp, Rene Ben Chemoul and Gilbert Leduc are the first names that come to mind first and foremost if you were to ask me who were the most prominent names of the TV era. Bibi and Prince have a case too, I think. The correct surname seems to be Esbrayat, not Exbrayat. He's a guy I've always thought about researching, but haven't yet. I've always thought the correct spelling of the name was Exbroyat (which is how prof. Edmond Desbonnet spelled it), but I did quick search last night after I read your post and realized I was wrong. In the 1830s French press and beyond the name is spelled mostly as Esbrayat. More importantly though, even though he was a wrestler too, he's definitely better known as a promoter. It seems he was active as early as 1830, and perhaps even earlier. The part about him having single-handedly developed the Greco-Roman style I have my doubts about, but I can't confirm it one way or another until I've actually done some proper research. The claim that Esbrayat called the style "flat hand wrestling" I definitely do not buy. As early as 1833 you start to see the term "lutte romaine" (Roman wrestling) being used in the French press. I've seen it used in a bunch of adverts for Esbrayat shows. Rossignol-Rollin, the top French promoter of the 1800s, used it a lot too and I believe this was the official name of the Greco-Roman style in France. It was known mostly as French wrestling elsewhere until the 1870s when the term "Graeco-Roman" was adopted in places like the UK and the USA. "Lutte à main plate" ("flat hand wrestling") was a term that was used too, but seemingly from the late 1840s onward. I'm not sure whether lutte romaine and lutte à main plate were the same style. There was also something called "lutte d'hommes" (men's wrestling) that you can see being used in conjunction with pro wrestling too. I think was a similar style, but not exactly Greco-Roman, although later it may have been also used as a term for Greco-Roman. The "lutte d'hommes" term was around as early as the late 1810s. Anyway, this is what I can say for now based on my research, but like with Esbrayat himself, I haven't spent a lot of time digging into it. This is just surface level stuff. Advert from 1839 for "lutte romaine" and "lutte d'hommes" featuring Esbrayat/Exbrayat: Charles Rigoulot and Julien Duvivier had nothing to do with pro wrestling being introduced at Velodrome d'Hiver. Here's the timeline of it all. Paoli, Deglane and Dan Koloff traveled to Paris in December 1932 and pretty much announced the plans for upcoming shows then. The other two went back to the States and Paoli stayed in Paris to lay the groundwork for the September 1933 debut of the promotion (at Velodrome d'Hiver). Rigoulot joined the promotion in December and was its number three star. Deglane was the top star while Koloff was the number two star and Koloff was also bringing in some of the talent. I've spent a good amount of time researching the Paoli promotion and I've never heard the name Duvivier in relation to it. Perhaps he may have had some role in highlights of the matches being aired in cinemas, but I can't see him being involved beyond that. Another important name in the start of the promotion was the boxing promoter Jeff Dickson, who owned Velodrome d'Hiver. He may have been a partner in the Paoli promotion. I've seen such claims, but haven't been able to verify them. The part about Delaporte having bought FFCP from Paoli in 1960 and becoming the dominant promoter then is definitely not true. Paoli was the main Paris promoter and then in 1952 he formed a partnership with Alex Goldstein, who was one of his chief rivals. Paoli had the biggest venue, but Goldstein had the most venues in Paris so this partnership was very beneficial for both. The two would co-promote for the next few weeks. By 1958 Paoli was out of the picture and Goldstein was running the show himself. At that point Delaporte was one of Goldstein's top stars. Delaporte left the Goldstein promotion in 1961, but returned in 1963. Eventually, and I'm not sure when, Delaporte took over the shows at Elysée Montmartre. Elysée Montmartre wasn't a Raoli/Goldstein venue. The promoter there, before Delaporte took over, was Henri Chausson. I can't say for sure what happened to the Paoli-turned-Goldstein promotion and how it ended. Anyway, that came to mind while reading the wiki entry. Additional details are available in articles that I've written elsewhere. Some of these articles are older and need to be updated, but here you can find additional details about French pro wrestling: Article: The pro wrestling career of the Olympic gold medalist Robert Roth (1921-1925) (talks about the beginning of regulated catch style pro wrestling in France) Results: Shows at Palais des Sports in Paris (1933-1939) Results: Shows at Palais des Sports in Paris (1944-1959) Article: The masked hero L'Ange Blanc (1959-1961) Cards: Paris (1959) (here you can really get a sense of how the Paris scene was set up back then) French title lineages: the World Heavyweight and European Heavyweight Titles (1936-1969)

I had asked Zefy some follow-up questions and he just got back to me now. After I had questioned it, he corrected himself on the year - he says the Macedonian tour was in October 1996. And he also says that they went to Macedonia on their way back from a tournament in Congo. I believe EWF used to also air on TF1. As for the TF1 / Eurosport connection, Eurosport was originally owned by Sky, but then the TF1 group took ownership of the channel in 1991.

I figured out the promotional aspect of the Macedonian tour. I don't know why I didn't make the connection earlier, but it all makes sense now. You know how I was saying the Macedonian announcer mentioned "European Federation of Catheurs" and the match being under the rules of "New Catch International"? "European Federation of Catheurs" would be Fédération Européenne de Catch (FEC), also known as European Wrestling Federation (EWF). Founded in France in the mid 1980s and, apparently, lasted until 1996. They were the same company that had a TV deal with Eurosport and they shared the timeslot with Otto Wanz's CWA in the early 1990s. The Eurosport show was called... "New Catch". By 1996 they had been off Eurosport TV for a few years but I guess they were still using the "New Catch" name to an extent.

I'm still quite intrigued by this Macedonian tour. For what it's worth, Prince Zefy finally got back to me as well and his version of events is a bit different than Bernard Vandamme's. According to Zefy the tour was in 1998 and they did two shows - Skopje (which aired lived on TV) and Pristina. Like Vandamme, he says the crowds were good, but they never returned for a second tour. I don't know if I buy that though. Kosovo (where Pristina is) was in the middle of a war in 1998-99 and I'm having a hard time buying the idea of a wrestling show there during that time. The war officially broke out at the end of February 1998 so, perhaps if the show was earlier in the year, I guess it's possible, but still I'm more inclined to believe Vandamme's version of events. I've asked Zefy some follow-up questions, but he hasn't replied back. I've also reached out to a few other people from the tour, but no response yet.

I can't answer that. All I can say is that when I asked him whether this was an IWSF or EuroStars tour, Bernard told me this tour was before either one of those promotional names. He may be misremembering, I don't know. And besides, neither one of the promotions is mentioned in the footage. In the footage the Macedonian announcer mentions only "New Catch International" and "European Catch Federation" (or European Federation of Catheurs, if I am to translate what he said more literally).